I am going to do a Blogger.com Review, formerly Blogspot.com. This is a free domain service provider used as a publishing platform for content.
Google owns Blogger.com and BlogSpot, and the terms have come to be used interchangeably. In this article, we are going to be focusing on reviewing Blogger.com.
Once you have your domain name, the rest of the system you’re using is on Blogger, and this is where you will publish your blog. If you were to do a Google search for Blogspot, you’re going to end up being referred to Blogger.com, and that’s where you’ll be doing all your work.
Also, let me say do not get confused with the term bloggers. A blogger writes blog posts. Blogger.com is a company owned by Google, and it is often just referred to as Blogger.
Blogger.com Review
- Name: Blogger
- Website: http://blogger.com
- Price: Free
- Owners: Google
- Overall Rank: 90 out of 100
Blogger.com Product Overview
Blogger is a blogging platform owned by Google. You join at Blogger.com even if you type into your browser BlogSpot.com.
Click here right now for our review, my personal help, and instant access to our free training videos where we'll show you exactly how we did it ourselves starting out as complete beginners without ANY prior knowledge or experience in marketing online whatsoever!
History Of Blogger.com
Most people do not know just how old Blogger.com is. According to Wikipedia, it was started by Evan Williams, Meg Hourihan and Paul Bausch started in 1999.
Evan Williams and his friends Meg Hourihan and Paul Bausch began writing blogs. Like many things, online Blogger was started because they found writing blogs to be difficult to do.
In the past, Evan Williams has worked for Google, been CEO of Twitter, and founded Medium.com. However, founding Blogger will always be his biggest achievement, in my opinion.
In 2003 they sold Blogger to Google. Over the years, Google has upgraded the program to make it easier for people to use.
This is another example of how excellent Google is. They do not charge anything to host a Blogger blog.
You do need a Gmail account to log in. Once you have that, you can go to Blogger.com and get started. In terms of history Blogger, today really does not resemble the Blogger of the early years.
They are trying hard to be a player in the marketplace. Just because they are Google, and people are associated with Google in so many other ways, starting a Blogger account makes sense.
Blogger.com Review Pros and Cons
I want to take a minute and list some of the pros and cons, or the good and bad as far as Blogger.com goes, at least in my mind. This is really a shortlist of the main points.
Pros:
- PRO #1 – Free to join. There is no doubt this is the big draw.
People all over the world can start a blog with a couple of clicks. Google still does not charge you anything, no matter how big you grow your blog. - PRO #2 – Easy to use. Set up is simple, and so is making blog posts.
Google provides several templates or themes you can choose from. These come nowhere close to the thousands of WordPress themes in the marketplace today.
Google provides support as needed. There are also many websites devoted to updating the HTML code to make your theme more unique. - PRO #3 – Can set up multiple blogs in various niches quickly and easily. This really is great for people who want to branch out without incurring any startup costs.
Affiliate marketers do this all of the time, starting niche blogs. Affiliates are earning part-time and full-time income promoting products on their many Blogger blogs.
Cons:
- CON #1 – Google can cancel you at any time. I can not think of anything much worse than this.
You spend a lot of time setting up your blog and getting it going. How would you feel if you had a 100-page blog or a 1000 page blog get cancelled?
How about this? Google cancels your Blogger.com account, and all of the blogs you are hosting are gone!
This happens and is a primary reason anyone selling on their blog should pay for a domain name and hosting elsewhere. - CON #2 – Not able to add plugins. The limited features Blogger offers do not allow you to add plugins that make blogging easier.
Bloggers using a self-hosted WordPress theme at the very least like to be able to use these plugins.
– Akismet spam
– Contact 7 Form
– Yoast
You can get as fancy as you want with plugins. You can not do it with Blogger.com. - CON #3- Customer support. This has always been a problem with Google, in my opinion. They are so large that getting immediate customer support is not possible.
If you host your own blog on another hosting provider, customer support is almost immediate. Bluehost, Godaddy, and Wealthy Affiliate come to mind.
Click here right now for our review, my personal help, and instant access to our free training videos where we'll show you exactly how we did it ourselves starting out as complete beginners without ANY prior knowledge or experience in marketing online whatsoever!
Who is Blogger For?
The majority of people who get started with Blogger do so because it’s free to use. You don’t get charged anything for any of the features or services of this blogging platform.
You start by choosing a domain name and have it posted online as a Blogspot domain. However, many people will purchase their own domain name and either redirect it to their Blogspot URL or change the name servers and have their own domain name become permanent.
Another reason that people choose to host their blogs with bloggers because it’s straightforward to tie the Google AdSense affiliate program into it. If you are thinking about starting a blog and making money with Google AdSense, this can be a way to go.
This program is elementary to get started with, which makes it perfect for beginner bloggers. It is also effortless to put the ads on your blog and start making money right away after Google approves you.
Blogger Tools & Training
Google offers several blog templates you choose from to build your blog on. Google has done an ok job keeping these up to date, although there are nowhere near the number of themes you would get WordPress.
In terms of training, the place to start is here.
You will find articles on getting started with Blogger.com, setting up your blog, posting, adding images and videos, and much more. Google also has its own blog where you can get up-to-date tips on using the Blogger platform from their own Google team. http://blogger.googleblog.com
Blogger Support
Google does have a forum for its Blogger members: https://support.google.com/blogger/community/?hl=en&gpf=23!forum2Fblogger.
If you do not find the answer to what you are looking for, you can ask the community.
Google asks that you follow their content policy when posting a question.
Is this good enough? Maybe and maybe not.
If you’re stuck, you probably need help right now. Asking questions and waiting for a reply, I know in my case wouldn’t be good enough.
That’s one of the things I’ve always liked about professional hosting companies such as Bluehost or GoDaddy. You can receive real-time replies in the form of chatting or even picking up the phone and calling them.
Blogger Price
Of course, Google is offering a free service, so you get what you pay for when it comes to customer service. As we stated several times now, the price for setting up your own blog spot URL and posting articles on your own blogger blog is free.
For a long-term solution, this may or may not be what you’re looking to do. The fact that Google can cancel you at any time is worrisome, but if you want to test out a blog, or you’re just looking to get some online content and a free blog, it’s tough to beat this platform at a price.
I Still Want To Try Blogger
This is not necessarily bad. I mean, millions of people use Blogger successfully. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
1. Test a niche. You may not be sure the niche you are going into is one you will be in 90 days or longer from now.
I personally have used this strategy. Start a blog on Blogger.com and add some content to it. You will know pretty quickly if this is a blog you are going to stick with.
If you do not have a passion for the niche, are you going to write fresh content? If not, will you be able to afford to outsource blog writing to a freelance writer?
Blogs thrive with fresh content. If you can not do that in a niche, you can easily cancel your Blogger blog and move onto something else.
2. Save content. I think you save all of your blog articles into a file just if Google cancels your blog.
At least if that happens, you can go to a hosting company such as Wealthy Affiliate and start a new blog with a new domain name.
Then you post and publish everything from your file. You will have a new blog up and running fast doing this.
3. Play it safe. You really have to follow everything Google says if you use the Blogger platform.
Understanding Google
In my opinion, using the Google AdSense affiliate program and nothing else is the way to go. This way, you make money with Google.
Do not do anything resembling black hat promotion. Google will recognize this and will cancel your blog. Stay strictly white hat.
The easiest way to do this is just by writing high-quality, helpful content. Publish articles using longtail keywords and do a lot of them.
You can develop an authority blog quickly doing this, and the chances of Google cancelling you go way down. If you have any doubt, do not do it should be your motto with Blogger.
Conclusion On My Blogger.com Review
I had several blogger blogs over the years. One thing I did not like had the Blogspot name in the URL.
Anyone that uses the Internet regularly knows this is a free blogging platform. It’s just not as professional as having your own domain name hosted with a professional hosting service.
However, the fact you can change the name servers and make the Blogspot URL your new domain name does take away that disadvantage.
The other biggest problem is the fact that Google can cancel your blog at any time. I would definitely suggest you copy all content and keep it in a separate file, just if this happens to you.
Google is not going to give you any notice. Waking up someday and finding your blog gone and all your hard work down the drain is extremely discouraging.
I know I keep harping on this, but there is just no worse feeling than losing all your hard work and not understanding why.
However, if you want to do occasional posts and don’t want to pay anything for a domain name or host, the Blogspot URL and blogger blog and platform might be just what you’re looking for. It is very s\easy to set up and use.
Blogger at a Glance…
Name: Blogger
- Website: http://Blogger.com
- Owners: Google
- Price: Free
- Overall Scam Rank: 90 out of 100
VERDICT: LEGIT
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With blogging and websites going mainstream today, your review of the blogger platform will catch the attention of many readers. You have very relevant content on the topic, and your review of blogger goes in depth so that a new person would be able to use your information successfully. Thank You
Hey Mark, my whole emphasis on building this website is to make it easy for the newcomers. After they understand and become a free member of Wealthy Affiliate, they will go through the process of building their website, and WA will take them to the next level. I do not need to do that. That is the reason why Wealthy Affiliate and I make an excellent Partnership.
I still have websites with Blogger.com and they still do well on the search engines, although I stop working on them or posting. I may even have a few comments that I did not get to answer. Thank you for the positive feedback.
Hello Bishop, helpful content you have up here in this post. I once hosted my blog on this platform, and I found it very easy to navigate and friendly to use then, compared to other options. I got started with this, and I chipped in all I know and my effort to make it work.
I had even connected my AdSense to it, and I’ve been making little cash until google blocked me out of the blue. I was shocked and queried them a lot with many emails yet; no real reason was given. It was very disheartening then though. But all the same, the platform was excellent when I was using it.
Yes, I had no problem in the past with this platform but stop using it a while now, since WordPress came to the rescue.
Google looks and makes a decision and sometimes do not inform you in advance or give you any warnings on why they make the decision. Thank you for your input here.
This is a good review, David. You’re right about starting with a free platform, too. It’s a good way to learn the ropes.
I wasn’t aware that they could cancel you at any time so that’s a bit of a worry. There must have to be a good reason…if you’ve violated a rule, maybe.
I had a Blogger site years ago (when it was still Blogspot) but I bought my own domain name. It was strictly a personal journal where I wrote about life at our Minnesota lake home and all of our travels, etc. It was a lot of fun and easy to use. I followed a lot of other Blogger blogs, too, and still, do.
Thanks for this helpful review!
The internet has evolved since and there are lots of plugins that are available to do the work for you on your website. This is one disadvantage of using a blogger.com website, the inability to download plugins and installed them on your website.
Glad that you have the experience with that website, and yes, Google can shut you down if you go against their policies. I use it sometimes for backlinks, something I would discuss in an upcoming post. Thank you for your feedback and input.
Blogging is undoubtedly popular in today’s world. I have a blog myself. I suppose this would be a great way to start and test the blog waters 🙂 Personally, though I like having my website name in the URL.
Seems like when I search, that websites with the name in the URL come up first. So I am thinking that being ranked on Google or Yahoo might not be as good thru blogger. Would that be a correct assumption?
Hey Matt, having your name in the URL is best for SEO and that is the reason those sites rank much better than Blogger, com websites. It shows that you know your SEO criteria and is definitely a good assumption. Thank you for your input here, and wish you all the best with your business.
Thank you for your review. The thought struck me as I read your post that Blogger might be a great place to practice some techniques. You could use it to try things out to see how they work. Then you can write a new post in your “real” website. It sounds like the training is rather minimal, so seems like it would be the place to try something new. If it is just for practice, it won’t matter much if Google cancels it.
It’s nice that it is free, but not sure that they offer very much. What about keywords? Or SEO training? Or do we assume that the site is for people who already know how to handle the basics? Interesting…Google sure has their Google fist in lots of pies.
Blogger has been around for some time now, and there is a lot of established website on this platform. Some people used it in different ways to link to their websites and had gotten some good results, so you can practice with it be sure that whatever that bis live on the internet stays, and if not used properly can hurt your rankings.
Google is the Internet Giant and anything that is necessary to build a business online, Google will create and give away for free. Blogger.com is no different. Understanding Keywords and SEO is another story and there are lots of programs online to help you with that. My best choice would be Wealthy Affiliate Free training.
Hope that helps! and thank you for the feedback.